Coming around the corner of the street in a little French village near
Toul, I beheld an incident that explained the all but adoring love
given to our American boys by the French children. The women and the
girls of that region had suffered unspeakable things at the hands of the
German swine. Photographs were taken of the dead bodies of girls that
can never be shown. The terror of the women at the very approach of the
German was beyond all words. The very words "Les Boches" send the blood
from the cheeks of the children. The women of the Dakotas on hearing
that the Sioux Indians were on the war-path with their scalping knives
were never so terrified as the French girls are on hearing the German
soldiers are on the march. Even the little children have black rings
under their eyes, with a strained, tense expression as they stand
tremulous and ready to run.
On the sidewalk near me was a little French girl of about six, with her
little brother, perhaps four years of age. Suddenly around the corner
came an American boy in khaki. He was swinging forward with step sure
and alert. The children turned, but there was no terror in their eyes
and no fear in their hearts. They did not know the American soldier;
never before had they seen his face, but his khaki meant safety. It
meant a shield lifted between the German monster and themselves.
Forgetting everything, the little French girl started on a run towards
the American soldier, while her little brother came hobbling after. She
ran straight to the American boy, flung her arms around his legging,
rubbed her cheek against his trousers and patted his knee with her
little hands. A moment later when her little brother came up the
American boy stooped down, lifted the boy and girl into his arms, and
while they were screaming with delight carried them across to a little
shop, and found for them two tiny little cakes of chocolate, the only
sweet that could be had. The French children understand.
The German motto was: "Frightfulness and terrorism are the very essence
of our new warfare."
Pershing's charge was: "You will protect all property, safeguard all
lives, lift a shield above the aged, be most courteous to the women,
most tender and gentle to the children."
In France our boys have lifted a shield above the poor and the weak,
and, having given service, they are receiving a degree of love beyond
measure; but there is no danger that they will be spoiled by the
adulation of the French women and children, who rank them with the
knights and the heroes of old.